An NYPD Union Meeting Almost Turned Into an All-Out Brawl

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Pat Lynch has been the subject of a lot of outside criticism lately, what with the shouting about how Mayor de Blasio has "blood on his hands" and his (possible) role in the recent NYPD work stoppage. Now it seems that he’s facing anger from the cops whose interests he claims torepresent.

The New York Daily News reports that an argument at a recent PBA meeting in Queens turned physical, with "pushing, shoving and lots of screaming" at Lynch. According to the tabloid, around 100 of the 350 people in attendance were angry over Lynch’s focus on forcing de Blasio to apologize for "not supporting" the NYPD when many cops are more worried about practical measures to improve their safety. "This is what my members want!" one officer reportedly shouted. "They want more cars, better vests, more manpower! They don’t want an apology."

Sources told the Daily News that some union members also demanded to know what Lynch and his fellow NYPD union bosses had discussed with de Blasio and police commissioner Bill Bratton at their December 30 sit-down. Others seemed to feel that PBA leaders hadn’t been clear with them on how to handle the apparent end of the work stoppage. The conversation reportedly ended when Lynch stormed out of theroom.

Later, Lynch blamed the unpleasantness on “a few agitators bent on their own self-agendas.” But even the New York Post, which is usually fairly sympathetic to the PBA chief, characterized the incident as a “blowout.” “Patty is losing control of the union. That’s the bottom line,” said asource.

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Interestingly, witnesses claimed that Lynch’s defenders generally hail from Manhattan, while the group of so-called “agitators” are mostly from the Bronx or Brooklyn. According to the Daily News’Juan Gonzalez, the mention of the cops’ respective boroughs might be a not-so-coded reference to some larger divisions within the department: “The PBA is not the same union that first elected Lynch back in 1999. Black, Latino and Asian officers are now a majority of city cops. Many are critical of previous stop-and-frisk policies and the targeting of minority youth for quality-of-lifearrests.”

Damon Jones, the head of the local chapter of Blacks in Law Enforcement, told Gonzalez that Lynch was “a throwback to Archie Bunker” who “keeps denying that there’s a problem,” despite the fact that nonwhite NYPD officers have complained about being racially profiled by their own colleagues whileoff-duty.

Perhaps most important, there are concerns about Lynch’s failure to negotiate a new PBA contract without bringing the matter to a state arbitrator. (The union and the city have now gone five years without an agreement.) Lynch, who has been in charge of the PBA for 15 years, is up for reelection in June. And, Gonzalez writes, for the first time since 2003, he can probably expect achallenger.

After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, uses an unofficial online messaging service for official White House business, including with foreign contacts, his lawyer told the House Oversight Committee late last year.

The lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he was not aware if Mr. Kushner had communicated classified information on the service, WhatsApp, and said that because he took screenshots of the communications and sent them to his official White House account or the National Security Council, his client was not in violation of federal records laws.

In a letter disclosing the information, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said that he was investigating possible violations of the Presidential Records Act by members of the Trump administration, including Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. He accused the White House of stonewalling his committee on information it had requested for months.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to stop disparaging the late Sen. John McCain, calling the Vietnam war hero “a dear friend” and defending him against the president’s criticisms. …

Ernst’s remarks came during a town hall meeting at a high school in Adel, Iowa, where several attendees voiced anger about Trump’s attacks about McCain. One attendee described McCain as a “genuine war hero” and called Trump’s comments about McCain “cowardly.”

“I do not appreciate his tweets,” Ernst said, when pressed by the attendee why she didn’t previously speak out more forcefully. “John McCain is a dear friend of mine. So, no I don’t agree with President Trump and he does need to stop.”

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For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons.

Sometimes these optional features involve aesthetics or comfort, like premium seating, fancy lighting or extra bathrooms. But other features involve communication, navigation or safety systems, and are more fundamental to the plane’s operations.

Many airlines, especially low-cost carriers like Indonesia’s Lion Air, have opted not to buy them — and regulators don’t require them. Now, in the wake of the two deadly crashes involving the same jet model, Boeing will make one of those safety features standard as part of a fix to get the planes in the air again.

… Boeing’s optional safety features, in part, could have helped the pilots detect any erroneous readings. One of the optional upgrades, the angle of attack indicator, displays the readings of the two sensors. The other, called a disagree light, is activated if those sensors are at odds with one another.

Boeing will soon update the MCAS software, and will also make the disagree light standard on all new 737 Max planes, according to a person familiar with the changes, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have not been made public. The angle of attack indicator will remain an option that airlines can buy.

Attorneys for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and more than a dozen other defendants charged in a Florida prostitution sting filed a motion to stop the public release of surveillance videos and other evidence taken by police.

Attorneys filed the motion Wednesday in Palm Beach County court. The State of Florida does not agree with the request, according to the filing.

In the motion, the attorneys asked the court to grant a protective order to safeguard the confidentiality of the materials seized from the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, and “in particular the videos, until further order of the court.”

Two years in, White House aides are dismayed to discover the president likes lobbing pointless, nasty attacks at people like George Conway and John McCain

But the saga has left even White House aides accustomed to a president who bucks convention feeling uncomfortable. While the controversies may have pushed aside some bad news, they also trampled on Trump’s Wednesday visit to an army tank manufacturing plant in swing state Ohio.

“For the most part, most people internally don’t want to touch this with a 10-foot pole,” said one former senior White House official. A current senior White House official said White House aides are making an effort “not to discuss it in polite company.” Another current White House official bemoaned the tawdry distraction. “It does not appear to be a great use of our time to talk about George Conway or dead John McCain. … Why are we doing this?

When Mr. Trump was running for president, he promised to personally stop American companies from shutting down factories and moving plants abroad, warning that he would punish them with public backlash and higher taxes. Many companies scrambled to respond to his Twitter attacks, announcing jobs and investments in the United States — several of which never materialized.

But despite Mr. Trump’s efforts to compel companies to build and hire, they appear to be increasingly prioritizing their balance sheets over political backlash.

“I don’t think there’s as much fear,” said Gene Grabowski, who specializes in crisis communications for the public relations firm Kglobal. “At first it was a shock to the system, but now we’ve all adjusted. We take it in stride, and I think that’s what the business community is doing.”

There’s no specific stipulation that Milo must be heard, so it could be worse

President Trump is expected to issue an executive order Thursday directing federal agencies to tie research and education grants made to colleges and universities to more aggressive enforcement of the First Amendment, according to a draft of the order viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The order instructs agencies including the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Defense to ensure that public educational institutions comply with the First Amendment, and that private institutions live up to their own stated free-speech standards.

The order falls short of what some university officials feared would be more sweeping or specific measures; it doesn’t prescribe any specific penalty that would result in schools losing research or other education grants as a result of specific policies.